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#1
the loading symbol? I don't think that's something that would've been given symbolic meaning. Most likely the designer just thought it would be cool/appropriate and then didn't see the need to give it a name.
What's the name for the resource file?
I figured it's called a "Throbber", whether that's official or not, I don't know.
Throbber - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thanks for all the responses, so far!
I can't find the resource file definitively for any I've seen, like during setup for instance - I imagine they could be found with a Resource hacker app. Do resource hackers work for Modern Apps?
The animated gif I posted I found with google - someone had reproduced what MS does, and named it with random characters.
The blue circle - smartcooky's "blue circle of impatience" has been termed "the blue toilet bowl of death" I believe, in reverence of the ancient BSOD and "The Green ribbon of death" "progress bar" (because it bars progress I assume) that occurs when File Explorer has to check through a load of files before showing them.
Edwin's "Throbber" seems official, but hardly apt, definitely not definitive, and somewhat suggestive
I've seen "travelling dots" for the linear form which looks like traffic bunching on the M25 before the variable speed limit tamed it somewhat.
However, there are several spinning dots gifs in windows, just a few here:
User/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/AC/%23!001/MicrosoftEdge/Cache/FD2ZSXMF/progress[1].gif
User/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/AC/%23!001/MicrosoftEdge/Cache/FD2ZSXMF/rsp-loading24x24[1].gif
User/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.Windows.Spartan_cw5n1h2txyewy/AC/%23!001/Spartan/Cache/DXU85KU6/page-spinner[1].gif
and so on.
If there was a visual "Highway Code" for Windows, which named these animated symbols, we could unambiguously describe these loading/process/spinners/etc., without having to go through lugubrious descriptions of them, even better if we could right click on the image and send the resource reference to some note-taking app.
I shall keep on waiting if you keep them coming. It was so much simpler with an hourglass cursor.
The middle one is what I get when my Toshiba laptop first kicks in but then only spins twice before the Microsoft one appears,
Then half a turn (unless an upgrade or update,) before the lock screen appears along with the Wi-Fi app then click lock screen and enter password and 15 seconds after that I am at desktop ready to go.
I was trying to imagine what physical entity this might represent. Best I could come up with was frictionless falling balls on a möbius strip. Which is not quite right. But I like it anyway. FFBoaMS /fboʊmz/